Day 4 – Wednesday March 17th
Travel day. We packed up the rig for the first time. Took about 2 hours but no issues. Easy drive to Lake Havasu. We left at 11:00am
We arrived at Crazy Horse Campground, Lake Havasu at 2:00pm (146 miles). Did not strap the computer monitor down effectively so it became our first casualty.
My bestie Morgan Gonzalez was there and he got us situated in our spot literally on the beach. It was simply incredible. He has talked about Lake Havasu for years and I’ve never been. Well now I know why he loves it here. It’s amazingly beautiful.
Morgan took us to see his toy garage… Wow! And then we took a spin around the lake on his pontoon boat. So fun.
Day 5 – Thursday March 18th
Just a beautiful morning. We rode the bikes on the beach, we rode into town, we had a great day exploring the resort.
We rode the electric bikes to the lunch with Morgan and friends and it was the first fully functional, non-mask restaurant we’ve been to in a year. It was great and normal and good for the soul.
The kids and I went swimming in the lake. It was cold but they loved it. The sunsets here are unreal. Morgan helped me lower my pin box on the trailer and then we sat around the deck and played guitar and sang songs for passing guests. Great day.
Day 6 – Friday March 19th
We spent the morning on Morgan’s super speed boat. I mean absolutely super speed. This giant red boat is 40’ of absolute demon speed. We went 130mph and it was the utmost awesome maniac wild stuff. Kids loved it. I loved it.
I also solved our first RV/truck problem. One of my air lines had worn through and it was bleeding air so we couldn’t fill the air bags. I was able to crawl under the truck and replace the coupling. Like a boss!
We drove from Havasu to Phoenix. We left at 3pm and arrived in Leaf Verde RV Resort at 5:00pm – 175 miles.
Day 7 – Saturday March 20th
We had a nice relaxing morning at the RV, then headed into Phoenix to the Phoenix Art Museum. Have to say it was much more interesting that I would have expected. They had a great exhibit on ballistics and mirror room.
After that, we went to Castle and Coasters and played some mini golf. Briana got 2 hole in one’s. We played a lot of video games at the arcade.
Jeff Butler was in town and my friend Will Armino came to the RV and I made dinner. It was delicious and it was fun having friends over.
Day 8 – Sunday March 21st
We met our neighbors Eric and Desi and they decided to join us. We went to the Salt River in east Phoenix. We rented kayaks and loaded up the truck for the day. The Salt River is amazing. Really fun river to kayak and so beautiful. But, the wild horses on the banks were absolutely crazy. The kids were beside themselves with glee. We jumped from the cliffs and it took us about 5 hours to do the entire river. Would do that again in a minute.
Day 9 – Monday March 22nd
We left to drive up to Sedona at 10:30 and it took us about 2hrs and we arrived at 1:30 – 115miles
We stayed at the Verde Ranch RV Resort and it was beautiful. Great RV park, great clubhouse, great amenities etc.
Monday afternoon we went and rented a Jeep at Myejeep and headed up to the broken arrow trail in Sedona. It’s serious 4x4 crawling in some of the most spectacular scenery. Briana drove most of it like a pro, even the ‘devil’s staircase’. I let Braden drive as well and he did great! It was a fantastic day and a great adventure.
We did laundry for the first time at the laundry mat. We have been debating the idea of getting a washer and dryer for the rig so it was good to test out the other option. It was so easy with the new digital machines; you can just connect to Bluetooth and pay and start. Pretty easy and cool.
Day 10 – Tuesday March 23rd
We took the morning off and worked on the rig getting stuff done. In the afternoon we went to our first national monument, Montezuma’s Castle. It was an easy hike and nice to bring the dog Dexter. The castle was very cool and the kids enjoyed being out and about as they normally do.
We went to dinner at Sonic. It was so delicious and funny parking the trunk at the drive in lol.
Day 11 – Wednesday March 24th
We left to drive up to Holbrook AZ at 11:00am and arrived at the KOA Petrified Forest at 1:30 - 135 miles
The drive was uneventful except for a sleet storm that shut the highway down for about 4 minutes. It was scary trying to stop on the slippery road as all trucks just stopped where they were.
At the KOA, we met a 17 year old girl working there named Piper. She was so fun and outgoing that we invited her back after work to tell us her story. It was fascinating watching the kids interact with another teen. It’s been way too long.
Day 12 – Thursday March 25th
Holbrook is surrounded by native reservations and petrified wood. The petrified wood business is a crazy machine. We went to the petrified forest national park. It was a little crazy to realize that these are actual logs that have fallen millions of years ago.
It was cold but we descended down the into the Blue Mesa which was just spectacular. It’s a carved out cavern that wraps around in crazy colors.
We ended up at Jim Grays which is the largest petrified wood dealer in the world. I’ve never seen a store like this. So much stone and wood and carving. It was epic. Briana bought a necklace and Braden got a geode.
We took Piper and her Mom out to a fantastic Italian restaurant. We absolutely love meeting with people and hearing their stories. It’s so good for the kids to interact.
